A Barossa alternative to some very ordinary pubs

It was a sad but true commentary by Nick Ryan in The Australian last year. The Barossa does not have a decent pub that strikes a balance that pleases a disparate clientele - visitors eager to sample a wide and diverse selection of local wines and locals wanting to drink just about anything other than their own wines. As Ryan wrote after listing some of wine country's best pubs:

If you’re wondering why Australia’s most internationally prominent wine region doesn’t rate a mention here then you obviously haven’t spent any time in the Barossa’s pubs. With the possible exception of the Greenock Hotel, the Barossa’s pubs are a sorry collection of shitholes with an utter lack of ambition and an eye fixed firmly on the lowest common denominator. It’s a crying shame.

Which is why it has come to pass that in recent weeks I have come to be sitting regularly on the footpath with a glass in hand while watching the Barossa world go by.

Natasha Mooney's little pop-up wine bar offers her La Bise wines by the bottle and the glass and it sure beats paying the $6 a middie for beer at the Tanunda Club.

(To be fair to the Club I should add that it has a selection of local wines but I wish it delisted the non-Barossa Peter Lehmann Riesling I wrote about here.)